Seeking advice regarding Master's degree completion

Gary, you are welcome to think that political leanings of a school don't matter. I disagree: a school is a community. It's like a condo association. Theoretically anybody can buy in, but if you're the odd one out on every issue it's going to be a tough slog, and no fun. This is not true at a fair-sized university, where there is vibrant disagreement on anything and everything, and maybe in general it is also less true in distance learning programs than on campus.

But Goddard's faculty and administration are emphatically left-of-centre, and strongly lesbian-flavored, and have been for many years. They may not care who you sleep with, but a student there had best be at least receptive to the vibe of such an educational community, the moreso given how tiny the place is, and even moreso given the tutorial interaction between students and professors. A neoconservative, for example, would get treated with utter contempt, if not eaten for breakfast.

On another topic, however, I think Goddard's concept of spending one week per semester on campus is actually a terrific idea. I wish more DL programs would copy it. Obviously that involves some travel, which means not for everyone, but I think it represents a good marriage of independent study and face-to-face learning.

Before I get jumped on this list, however, I must hasten to add that Goddard's is not an on-line learning mode of education. It is the old-fashioned world of correspondence learning. (I.e., I think the immediacy of on-line programs would help to mitigate what is lost by learning at a distance.)

Just my Canadian two cents. (About 1.2 cents south of here.)

Peter

 

Hille, we did check with Amberton some time ago. At first we got contradictory information about whether they would accept the transfer credits, but eventually it became clear that they would not (though I don't recall specifically why they wouldn't).

We came across the MA in Integrated Studies from Athabasca, and we have an email out to them. If they will accept her transfer credits then this would work out perfectly! Normally they will accept up to 15 credits (of 33) in transfer. There is a brief mention of completing the degree in 2-8 years, but it's unclear whether or not this is a hard limitation that applies to transfer credit. The remaining 18 credits would only cost about US$4K, including course materials, so it would also be affordable. Athabasca is also an excellent fit since they offer correspondence type courses that do not need to be completed according to a fixed timeline.

Wish us luck with this one, I have my hopes up!

 

Good news! It sounds as though the Athabasca program will probably work! They generally accept credit for courses that were taken within 10 years, and the credit is accepted upon admission, rather than at the time that the degree is granted. Her prior courses should fit in well with the program, so this should be good fit.

Thanks to everyone for the input, I'll follow up if Athabasca doesn't work out for some reason.

 

Re: Excelsior College's transfer policy for graduate courses

I'd like to add a little information about the transfer credit policy at Excelsior College's Master of Arts in Liberal Studies.

We do have a quite liberal policy at the graduate level: 15 credits, with no time limit. It was stated in this forum previously that the credits must be in liberal arts. We are not quite as restrictive as that.

Besides liberal arts, transfer credits can also be in any science, mathematics, or fine arts (music, theater, painting). Some education courses are also eligible (ed psych, ed. foundations). History of any subject is also eligible. There is a requirement that at least two disciplines be represented, so the limit is 12 credits in any one discipline.

Up to six credit hours of the fifteen can be in courses that are "applied" or "professional," if the student's thesis or creative project is related at least loosely to those six credits. Applied science and courses that teach "how to do something," like teach a class or manage a company, are subject to the six credit limit.

For more details and examples, there is a guide to our transfer credit policy at http://www.excelsior.edu/tier2.htm (which I wrote, by the way). Or call us at 888 647-2388 then 1-3-2-3.

Daniel Eisenberg
Associate Dean, Liberal Arts
MLS Program Director
[email protected]
Excelsior College